Jill DuffyMicrosoft OneNote Mobile (for iPhone)iPhone owners who rely on Microsoft OneNote should download OneNote Mobile while it's still free in the Apple App Store&mdash;and then wait for an update or two before using it.

iPhone owners who rely on Microsoft OneNote should download OneNote Mobile while it's still free in the Apple App Store—and then wait for an update or two before using it.

Microsoft's note-taking and sharing software OneNote is now available in a mobile version from the Apple App Store for iPhone users (iOS 4.2 and above), and, for a limited time, it's free. Like other popular note-taking apps, such as Evernote (3 stars, for iPad), Awesome Note, and Google Notebook, the purpose of OneNote Mobile is to give users the ability to jot down, amend, and organize their notes while on the go, and then to have access to them elsewhere, too. All the notes are sent to a cloud service, which syncs them across multiple platforms. Microsoft hasn't yet announced how much it plans to charge for OneNote Mobile for iPhone in the future, so if you are a heavy Office user, you ought to snap it up now while it's freebut hold off investing too much time in it until Microsoft releases an update or two. This initial release has a handful of problems and limitations that sting enough to warrant the wait.

Task Master
You'll need a Windows Live ID to use the service, but you can create a free account on the spot if you don't already have a username and password. And that's all it takes to set it up.

The settings button didn't bring up any configuration options for me at all when I logged in with an existing Windows Live ID (although I had not used OneNote previously with this ID). The only things I could do from the setting page were synchronize, log out, and view error messages from previous synchronizations. Three other buttonsTechnical Support, Terms of Service, and Privacybrought up informational pages, but didn't offer me the ability to do anything.

Users create new notes using a Quick Note button at the bottom of the screen. This brings up a virtual page designed with four cheesy and old-fashioned clip-binder rings on the left. Welcome to the digital era. Hit the screen once, and a cursor and keyboard appear so you can get to writing notes.

OneNote is especially good at lists. As an avid list-maker who uses Awesome Note Lite several times a week, I am already considering making the switch to OneNote for this function alone. In particular, I much prefer how OneNote handles check boxes. You can put check boxes directly into a note itself, letting you tick off items one by one (in Awesome Note Lite, you can associate a tick mark with a note, but not within a note). OneNote automatically cues up the next check box entry when you hit return, the same way Microsoft Office auto-bullets items in a bullet list.

It may trump Awesome Note Lite's list-making abilities, but OneNote Mobile is slightly less intuitive than competitor Evernote. The biggest hindrance I found in OneNote was not being able to figure out how to file or group notes into new notebooks. And, while OneNote process for typing text-based notes and adding photos and images was nearly identical to how it's done in Evernote, I couldn't figure out how to add a voice memo in OneNote. According to the documentation, audio notes are not supported on the mobile version, even though phones offer a supremely easy way for users to record them.

Finicky Features
OneNote Mobile syncs with the desktop version of OneNote, which comes bundled with Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010, as well as an online Web App. The Web App is available to three different kinds of users: 1) for personal use in Windows Live (Hotmail users can find it at the very top of the page, under the Office link), 2) in organizations that have installed and configured Office Web Apps on their SharePoint site, and 3) for professionals and businesses that subscribe to select Microsoft Office 365 services.

From the Web interface, you can add iconic tags, like a red exclamation point for "important," right inside the notes so that you can visually annotate your actual textbut these are lost in the mobile version. What's the point of being able to mark something "important" if that message is lost when I might need to know it most?

The lack of consistency actually extends farther than just the mobile version. A very buried footnote on a Microsoft web page explains, "There are some differences between the features of the OneNote Web App and the OneNote 2010 application." Compatibility should not be such an issue across three versions of the same product, especially when the point of the product is synchronization.

Early users might also find some actual glitches in the software, too. In testing the app, I hit upon an odd little bug. I was trying to delete a word letter by letter, but as I pressed the backspace button, the cursor moved behind each character without deleting it, as if I were hitting the left arrow key. This happened twice on the same screen, but I wasn't able to repeat it.

Wait and See
While Microsoft OneNote Mobile has been in beta for some time, it still needs finessing. My recommendation is to download it now while it's free and hope that Microsoft irons out the few wrinkles in future updates. Don't ditch your other note-taking applications just yet.

About the Author

Jill Duffy is a contributing editor, specializing in productivity apps and software, as well as technologies for health and fitness. She writes the weekly Get Organized column, with tips on how to lead a better digital life. Her first book, Get Organized: How to Clean Up Your Messy Digital Life is available for Kindle, iPad, and other digital forma... See Full Bio

Bottom Line: Upgrading from McAfee Internet Security to McAfee Total Protection gets you a file encryption utility and extra licenses for the password manager. Unless you need those features, you may be better off with McAfee AntiVirus Plus.

Microsoft OneNote Mobile (for i...

Microsoft OneNote Mobile (for iPhone)

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.